SJ8495 : Disfigured, Empty and Truncated
taken 6 years ago, near to Manchester, England
In 2017 a series of sculptures by the Raqs Media Collective Link went on display at the Whitworth Art Gallery, three at the front of the gallery and the fourth in the park at the rear.
Delhi's Coronation Park was built in 1877 to proclaim Queen Victoria as Empress of India. Today it houses the relics of the Imperial statuary that were once installed in the avenues of British India's capital - New Delhi. A suite of four figures - Empty, Truncated, Disfigured and Bending, on or beside plinths, quotes the hubris of Coronation Park drawing from George Orwell's text in "Shooting the Elephant", and speaks of the ephemerality and hollowness of pomp, circumstance and power.
The works were first exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2015. After the exhibition in Manchester, the fourth piece remained on permanent display in Whitworth Park.